Sisters & Brothers

Bibliography

Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. 2008. Sisters & Brothers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company ISBN 9780618375967

Plot Summary

Sisters & Brothers dives into exploring the different sibling relationships that happen in the animal kingdom. Jenkins and Page explore different forms of sibling relationships between animal siblings varying from naked mole rats to African elephants. While sharing sibling relationships, Sisters & Brothers important factual information that relate animal siblings.

  

Critical Analysis

Sisters & Brothers is an informational storybook that can be used with a wide range of audiences. The beauty of the story is how it can capture an audience ranging from young readers to middle-school readers. For young readers, Jenkins and Page include concise text as well as illustrations that capture their attention. On the other hand, Jenkins and Page incorporate longer and more detailed texts for older children to gain more insight into the different relationships. Jenkins develops a unique story that relates to readers as we create our own meaning from relationships we have with friends, family, and specifically siblings.

The illustrations on white backgrounds creates more focus towards the animals in each page.

With the use of contrast colors as well colors true to the animal being depicted, it creates unison between the text and illustrations. The accurate illustrations of the animal are scaled depending on their sizes. For instance, the African elephants take up more space within the page versus termite brothers and having a plethora on the page.

Overall, Jenkins and Page provide a unique perspective on animals with accuracy as well as readable to different levels of readers. 

Review Excerpts and Awards

From Kirkus Reviews: “Jenkins’s signature cut- and torn-paper images artfully spread across clean white pages with just a paragraph of text and label for each relationship”

From Horn Book: “Fascinating animal facts…the new focus allows deeper explorations of the growth and development stages.”

From the New York Times: “Steve Jenkins and Robin Page present intriguing lore about termite families, bat twins and giant anteater singletons, in gorgeous cut- and torn-paper collages. We enjoy the unexpected grace of beavers swimming and the bulky power of grizzly bear”

Connections

Other books by Steve Jenkins

Actual Size

What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You?

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest- and Most Surprising- Animals on Earth

Connections in the Classroom

This story can be aligned with different topics in the classroom. The topics can include a family unit on different types of familys, understanding relationships, and an animal unit.